Bhagat Singh Study is a blog to know about great Indian martyr Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries of the world, who played a historic role in shaping the destiny of Indian nation and the world. Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara like revolutionaries are the icons of youth, who wish to change the world. In this blog there are photographs, documents and research material about Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries of the world.

The late Bipan Chandra had co-authored India's Struggle for Independence in the late 1980s in which Bhagat Singh and some others were described as “revolutionary terrorists“.It's not new, yet it has outraged at least one member of Singh's extended family and some politicians; historians and other relatives, not so much. The most that the late historian can be accused of is adopting colonial lexicon.A Delhi University history teacher, declaring the `controversy' “nonsense“, explained, “Terrorism is how the state describes a particular form of resistance. It's standard in books but is also interrogated and compared with other forms of mobilising,“ she said.Historians now object to it on principle but don't believe the authors were “trying to denigrate“.
Chaman Lal, who's spent a lifetime documenting Singh's works, points to a 1931 letter. “Bhagat Singh had written, `I am not a terrorist and I never was, except perhaps in the beginning of my revolutionary career.' It was a common term,“ he said.Lal was Chandra's colleague at JNU and credits him with “bringing Bhagat Singh to notice as a thinker-revolutionary“. “Earlier, Singh was a brave freedom-fighter. Chandra's introduction to a special edition of Singh's `Why I am an Atheist', changed that. I, and dozens of others, built on the tradition he established,“ Lal said.
Abhitej Sandhu, Singh's grandnephew and cousin to Yadvinder Sandhu who complained, agreed: “He was one of the few to do justice to Shaheed-e-Azam.Every government wants symbolic ownership of his legacy . The meaning of terrorism has changed but it's too small an issue.The government should focus more on Bhagat Singh's thoughts, his ideas on the economy , for instance.“
The book is part of standard undergraduate reading lists, including DU's. “They (authors) have used terms of the colonial administrators. When writing history today, you shouldn't. Also, Singh had moved away from `terrorism'--which is, essentially using acts of terror to de-stabilise the ruling dispensation--and was different from late-19th-century terrorists,“ said historian R Gopinath. He dismissed the idea that the phrase was used maliciously. “Chandra told me to read Singh.“
This issue was raised during UPA rule too, observed Lal.“Chandra had clarified then that terrorist wasn't used as a negative term and that the more appropriate expression was `revolutionary nationalism'. This controversy is contrived, planned by the Right. These people don't read anything,“ he said.

One would be rather surprised to know
the increasing interest in study of Bhagat Singh phenomenon in the western
academia lately, perhaps more than Indian academia taking interest in the
subject!

Not only
author of present book Dr. Kama Maclean, who is an Australian and an Associate
Professor in South Asian and World History at UNSW Sydney, also editor of South
Asia; Chris Moffat has recently completed his PhD on Bhagat Singh in
Cambridge University, UK; Professor Christopher Pinney at University College
London, in his book-Photos of Gods dealt with phenomenon of Bhagat Singh
through study of photos, posters and pictures. Some of the Indian scholars also
worked on the theme in western academic institutions, such as Neeti Nair with
her paper as ‘Bhagat Singh as Satyagrahi’, Simona Sawhney as ‘Bhagat Singh:
A Politics of Death and Hope’

Dr. Kama
Maclean has been working on this project since 2007, when on a visit to
Amritsar on a sabbatical leave from her University, she noticed pictures of
Bhagat Singh in every bazar of the town. In those days, Amir Khan Starrer
popular film Rang de Basanti was running in cinema houses and a young
scholar wished to write her paper on revolutionaries impact on national
movement. But she soon became frustrated as she could not find enough
scholarship to continue with her paper! Well that was a telling comment on
academic situation in Indian Universities after sixty years of freedom despite
huge popularity of Bhagat Singh in public mind, but which did not motivate
Indian historians to deal with the phenomenon at academic level! However some
of Indian academic personalities did pay attention to this neglected aspect of
Indian history of freedom struggle. Most notably Bipan Chandra with his introduction
to ‘Why I am an Atheist’-the seminal essay of Bhagat Singh and also some
of his other writings started the process of focusing upon Bhagat Singh and
other revolutionaries impact on national movement. Sumit Sarkar in his ‘
Modern India’ and later day scholars from different fields, like A G
Noorani with his ‘The Trial Of Bhagat Singh’, S Irfan Habib with his ‘To
Make the Deaf Hear’ like books contributed towards studying Bhagat Singh’s
role in freedom struggle at academic level. This was post seventies development.
Prior to that Comrades of Bhagat Singh like Shiv Verma, Bejoy Kumar Sinha,
Jaidev Kapoor, Sohan Singh Josh, Ajoy Ghosh, Jatindernath Sanyal, Yashpal,
Rajaram Shastri and many more wrote memoirs of Bhagat Singh and other
revolutionaries from 1950 onwards, but were not paid much attention by academic
institutions for research. Even the biographical writing on whole Bhagat Singh
family by Bhagat Singh’s niece Veerender Sandhu, published as early as in 1967
from Benaras was not paid much attention to, partly because it was in Hindi. Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library conducted number of interviews of ex
revolutionaries in seventies, which are now considered most valuable part of
the source material on revolutionaries’ related research and present researcher
Kama Maclean has also made liberal use of this valuable material from NMML in
this book. In fact the author has collected so much of source material from
various places that perhaps no other researcher had it before. She has
documents from National Archives of India, particularly Home (Political) dept.
files, Proscribed literature collection; from Nehru memorial museum and library
(NMML), she has consulted or collected 34 interviews from Oral History
Transcripts, AICC Papers and some private papers. She collected rich source
material from London, which perhaps no earlier researcher on Bhagat Singh had
accessed in such detail. From British library, India Office records she has
proscribed tracts collection, from other sections of same library she has
consulted important collections such as Halifax papers. Kama Maclean consulted
23 interviews from Oral History Collection of Centre for South Asian Studies,
Cambridge University, from there she consulted private papers too. These
interviews were not known much in academic circles before. The interviews have
been conducted during 1970-1991 and includes some interviews, not conducted by
NMML earlier. Most important among Cambridge interview is that of Bhikshu
Chaman Lal, known earlier as Chaman Lal Azad, correspondent of Hindustan Times
at the time of Delhi bomb case in 1929.

Dr. Kama
Maclean consulted Bradley papers from People’s History Museum Manchester as
well. Apart from these archival material, author has accessed many newspapers
of that time like Abhyudaya, Bhavishya, Chand, Tribune, Civil and Military Gazette
etc. A number of old and contemporary publications are also part of author’s
bibliography for this project. She has collected number of posters, photographs
for her book, out of which, she has reproduced as many as 53 figures in this
book from her collection, collected from various institutions like Supreme
Court of India, National Archives, NMML, British Library and private sources,
even buying many items from Shyam Sunder Lal Picture Merchant Kanpur and other
places.

Collecting so
much source material makes rather difficult the task of organising it and
putting it to judicious use for research and that was a challenge for
researcher here.

Based on
such rich source material, as a well-trained researcher, Dr. Kama Maclean has
organised her book into three parts with three chapters each in every part. She
has detailed introduction as well as Epilogue to her book, apart from all the
technical details like Acknowledgements, Glossary, Acronyms, note on spellings,
list of illustrations, notes, bibliography, index etc.

In her
introduction, Dr. Kama Maclean has explained the area and period of her
research project. Mostly she has focused upon 1928-31 period and on Hindustan
Socialist Republican Association (HSRA). She has defined 1928-31 period as
‘Inter War Period’, starting from Simon Commission visit to India in 1928 and
taking it up to Karachi Congress of March end 1931, held immediately after
Bhagat Singh-Rajguru-Sukhdev execution. She has questioned the prevalent narrative
of Independent struggle predominately as
Gandhian ideology of non-violence and supplemented it with impact of
revolutionaries on national movement through inter war period struggle of HSRA.
To study HSRA role she has deployed oral histories, ‘un-archived’ materials
such as satire, hearsay, visual cultural artefacts like photos and posters to
reconstruct this neglected history. Not only the material, she referred, she
has as much deployed archival material and authentic documents as well, to fill
the gaps of history. She has admitted in her introduction that-‘ The
revolutionaries of the HSRA have long been marginalised in the academic
historiography of nationalism, despite their extraordinary popularity in
popular culture in colonial India, this was most evident in proscribed
literature and posters, and in contemporary India, in film, posters, comics and
bazar histories’.(Page 2) She has favourably referred here to 2004 book of
Christopher Pinney-‘Photos of Gods’: The Printed Image and Political
Struggle in India.

In a way she
has carried forward the interesting multi-disciplinary research began by Pinney
in this area with combination of social sciences and aesthetics. Dr. Maclean
has used a poster provided by Dr. Pinney as title of the book, which has
garland of Chandershekhar Azad photos on Bhagat Singh’s picture. She has
described her work as-‘this book represents only the beginning of a larger,
collective project of understanding revolutionary history, from a range of ‘post-subaltern and postcolonial
scholarly perspective’. Dr. Kama Maclean has concluded her
introduction with the defining of her research methodology perspective as post-subaltern and postcolonial
scholarly perspective’, which may be debated by professional historians. The
historians, whom she has shown respect are from subaltern school such as Dipesh
Chakrabarty, whose comments on this book are displayed on title back page. She
has humbly acknowledged that she has not been able to consult all the oral
histories, neither all the police records, despite consulting massive store of
material, which she has come across. Researcher has referred in her
introduction ‘Indian Political Intelligence files-constituting 21660 volumes and
224 boxes of data’, being opened for
scholars in British library India Office records, from 1996 (Page 8)

Author has divided main text of her book into three parts-Part-I is
called-‘The Revolutionaries of Hindustan Socialist Republican Army: Histories,
Actions, Activities’. This part has three chapters-i. Of History and Legend:
Revolutionary Actions in North India-1928-31, ii-That Hat: Infamy, Strategy and
Social Communication and iii-The Revolutionary Unknown: The Secret Life of
Durga Devi Vohra. Author has used here term ‘Army’ instead of earlier used term
‘Association’, both acronym as HSRA. Army term was used by revolutionaries
themselves as ‘the military’ wing of their political group known as ‘Association’
with same three earlier words-HSR. Balraj, a pseudo name for Chandershekhar
Azad, was commander-in-chief of the ‘Army’! Posters thrown in Delhi Assembly
after bombs exploded were under the signatures of ‘Balraj’, so were HSRA
posters pasted on Lahore walls after Saunders assassination earlier. This
chapter delineates the short history of Bengal revolutionary groups like
Anushilan, Yugantar and also precursor of HSRA, Hindustan Republican
Association(HRA), formed in late 1923 by Sachindernath Sanyal, which included
all the characters of HSRA and also Ram Prasad Bismil-Ashfaqullah-Roshan Singh
and Rajender Lahiri, who were executed in late 1927 on account of Kakori rail
dacoity in 1925. This chapter also narrates A Short History of Bhagat Singh
as well, based upon Clandestine, Proscribed and Aggrieved Histories. Kama
Maclean not only narrates history of Bhagat Singh, she takes it to his After
Life history too. She discusses movement in Pakistan to name Bhagat Singh Chowk
in Lahore. She discusses seven films made on Bhagat Singh under the sub title-In
the Grip of Popular Culture. Very few people now know that first film Shaheed-e-Azam
on Bhagat Singh was made by certain Jagdish Gautam in 1954 and it has created
quite a furore among revolutionaries and Bhagat Singh family. Bejoy Kumar Siha has
referred to this film in his memoirs and raising of the issue even in
Parliament to get the film banned. It was not banned, but cuts were made, which
did not satisfy either family or surviving revolutionaries at that time. Second
film on Bhagat Singh is also largely unknown, it was made in 1963 with Shammi
Kapur as hero and Kidar Bansal as director. It was third 1965 film ‘Shaheed’
starring Manoj Kumar which brought fame to martyr as well as hero of the film
with its melodious musical appeal. 2002 saw release of three films on Bhagat
Singh, out of which The Legend of Bhagat Singh got more popularity and
acceptability. Seventh and last film in circuit was 2006 Amir Khan Starrer Rang
de Basanti.

Second chapter of
this part of the book brings interesting narration on Bhagat Singh’s hat, which
according to researcher has contributed to his popularity through posters made
on its basis. She brings to fore the fact that revolutionaries, particularly Bhagat
Singh was conscious about the power of media to popularise their ideas and made
maximum use of it through pre planning. Author underlines the fact that most of
the revolutionaries had their photographs from studios for records and for
using by media after their arrest or death. These photographs became rich
material for artists later to turn them into attractive and impressive posters.
Hat photograph was taken by Ramnath photographer in his Kashmere gate studio in
Delhi probably on 4th April, just few days before both Bhagat Singh and B K
Dutt threw bombs in Delhi Assembly. B K Dutt was also photographed at same time
in same studio by same photographer. Ironically same Ramnath was engaged by
Delhi police as well to photograph Assembly bomb site. Author has surmised that Delhi police had got
Bhagat Singh and B K Dutt photographed after their arrest on 8th
April by same photographer Ramnath, but those photographs are still to surface.
Photographs taken on 4th April were published on 12th
April for first time by Lahore Urdu daily Bande Matram, followed by Hindustan
Times in Delhi on 18th April, before becoming viral in today’s
terms, which contributed immensely to Bhagat Singh’s popularity throughout
India. Hat photograph of Bhagat Singh made him iconic figure in times to come.
Second chapter of the book based on Hat photograph is continuation of
Christopher Pinney’s earlier work based on photograph studies of
revolutionaries. Third chapter in this part of the book is fascinating story of
Durga Devi Vohra, popularly known among revolutionaries and later as Durga
Bhabhi, being wife and widow of Bhagwaticharan Vohra, who died in bomb
experiment on 28th May 1930 on Ravi banks in Lahore.

In second part
of the book which is intriguingly given title of Porous Politics: The
Congress and the Revolutionaries-1928-31, author has focused upon Congress
party and revolutionaries interactions as part of national movement. The close
relations of two Nehrus- Motilal and Jawaharlal and Subhas Bose with
revolutionaries, have been discussed in detail and many suppressed facts have
been revealed. Kama Maclean has continued with presentation and interpretation
of posters she had collected as part of her research interest in this part of
the book. Motilal Nehru’s rather unknown speech ‘Balraj or Gandhi’ in context
of Delhi bomb case- has been discussed. Motilal Nehru was softer than
Jawaharlal towards revolutionaries and gave them many times liberal funds.

Third part of
the book-The Aftermath: Gandhism and challenge of revolutionary violence
is focussed upon The Karachi Congress 1931, held immediately after Bhagat
Singh-Sukhdev-Rajguru execution and shows how deftly Gandhi dealt with young
people’s anger and was able to avoid the split in Congress party.

In Epilogue
the story is taken till 1945-46 focusing upon revolutionaries’ refusal to
compromise with Congress Governments and their preference not to seek release
by tendering apologies.

The book is rather
large sized with 342 pages in shorter font size, sometimes even difficult for readers
with poor vision to read. The large number of ‘endnotes’ disturb reading by
referring all the time at end of the book, which could have become easy reading
if notes had been used as ‘footnotes’ on each page. (Number
of Notes is very high-117+177+137+136+136+45+230+170+123+85+23(Total of 1379
notes!)

While researcher
has been careful in general, still some errors have creeped up, like referring
to ‘Chand-fansi issue’ as of 1926, whereas it was published in November 1928,
the error has been repeated many times. But on the whole Kama Maclean has put
up hard labour to conduct research on an unusual subject and did lot of
fieldwork to collect data for her research. She deserves to be complemented for
her well-produced research work in the form of this book.

Chaman Lal

·The reviewer is a retired Professor from Jawaharlal
Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. His recent publication is ‘Understanding
Bhagat Singh’

Sagari Chhabra has been making films, writing plays, poetry and books
for children since many years.Many of her films have earned her international
laurels. Her films include-Now I will Speak, Tatva, Hunger in the time of
Plenty, The word and the world, Asli Azadi, Brides are not for Burning and Global Warming.

Her
publications prior to this book, include The Gift (Play) and The Talking Tree
(For children).

The
present publication-In Search of Freedom: Journeys through India and South-East
Asia, is ambitious book, written after many years research projects and after
traveling to many countries of South-east Asia, including Mynamar, Thailand,
Malayasia and Singapore. Book is dedicated to these freedom fighters and also
to her daughter Sachi, whom she is briging up as single parent. Book brings out
rare photographs of these unknown and unsung heroes of Indian freedom struggle,
about whom, only few people know. Some of them are still alive, but mostly have
passed away. Major focus of the book is on freedom fighters of Netaji Subhas
Bose led Indian Naional Army (INA), which was formed abroad and which fought
glourious battles in North East of India, before freedom came about. Sagari had
taken up this journey in year 2004 with grant from Asian Scholarship Foundation
Bangkok, which granted her Asia Scholar fellowship for few months and since
then she has been working on this book, which came out only in 2015, but in a
nice form from Harper and Collins, Delhi. There are certain photographs of
freedom fighters on both front and back title of the book, as well as black and
white photo of Janky Thever in the beginning of the book. Many other
photographs are inside the chapters of the book.

Book is divided into 22 chapters, apart from Introduction, Afterword,
Notes, Bibliography, Index and Acknowledgements, following the standard format
of an academic book. But the narration of book is not so academic, method of
data collection, conducting interviews etc. has touch of academic research, but
during interviews, human touch of author and freedom fighters emerges out and
that makes book an interesting reading, apart from providing rich information,
largely unknown to most of Indians.

In the
very first chapter of the book-Meeting the Gandhians, author dwells upon
searching material on women in film institute of Pune, which she finds almost
nothing. In Delhi, she tries her luck at Home ministry controlled office on
freedom fighters and gets some connection by meeting INA veteran S S Yadav.
Author moves with her friend Tanu to Gujarat, where she could meet Dandi salt
march veteran woman Veerbalaben Nagarwadia, who was born in 1913 and with many
women were at Sabarmati Ashram Ahmedabad on 12th March 1930, when salt march to
Dandi was to take place. Interesting fact emerges from this meeting that
Mahatma Gandhi after being arrested at Dandi after salt march, never returned
to Sabarmati, he had shifted to Sewagram in Wardha later. 92 Satyagrahis had
walked with Gandhi to Dandi, more than 200 miles or 386 kilometers away and 95
thousand Satyagrahis were arrested by May 1930. Auther further meets Nirmlaben
Desai, Jyoti Singh and many others in touch with Mridulaben. They meet
Sarlaben, who met and fell in love with Vimal Shah and they married in 1946 as
activists, although they were ex-communicated by their families.

Beginning from Gandhians, author moves to Revolutionary women in second
chapter, starting with Lakshmi Sehgal in Kanpur, the heroine of INA, who was
minister in Netaji cabinet and known as Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan, daughter of
south Indian parents, whose younger sister Mrinalini Sarabhai had just passed
away, she was in her eightees then. There is a detailed testimony of Lakshmi
Sehgal. She was in Captain’s rank, INA defeated British at Moirang in Manipur,
but got defeated in Imphal. With Lakshmi Sehgal reference, author meets
Narayani Tripathy and Gouri in Delhi.

Sagari
moves to Calcutta on her way to Burma for more interviews. At Kolkata they met
Aruna Ganguly, Pratima Sen and traced Parul Bhattacharya in Delhi, who had
joined Rani Jhansi brigade of INA under Lakshmi Sehgal and her young son became
part of ‘Balak Sena’, formed by Neta ji. They met Momota Mehta also. In 3rd
chapter author tells us that they made many trips to Ahmedabad, in Chandigarh they
located Sarla Sharma, friends with IK Gujral mother Pushpa Gujral, Savitri
Ramkrishan, Subhadra Khosla and Vijaya Chauhan. Later meeting Krishna Thapar,
daughter of Lala Achint Ram, cousin of martyr Sukhdev. Savitri Ramkishan, who
had married Comrade Ramkishan, Chief Minister of Punjab for short period. She
records the accounts of Lahore jail.. Subhadra Khosla, becoming Subhadra Joshi
defeated Atal Behari Vajpayee. Sagari Chhabra’s big achievement was tracing
Janki Thevar, one of Major INA woman commander after Lakshmi Sehgal.

In 4th
chapter author focuses on Sushila Nayar’s relations with Mahatma Gandhi, with
whom Gandhi had been sleeping in his experiments of celibacy. Here is the
reference to Gandhi’s attraction towards Tagore niece and Punjab Congress
leader Sarladevi Chaudhrani. Sushila Nayar’s testimonies are interesting and
refer to many historic events in Gandhi’’s life in jails, including death of
Mahadev Desai in Agja Khan Palace in Pune, where Gandhi was imprisoned.

After
covering lot of Indian women freedom fighters, author Sagari Chhabra moves to
South East Asian countries, starting with Malayasia. She notes that though
getting independence ten year after India, its cities are more developed albeit
on westwen model. Her experience in Malayasia was not very good with too strict
Islamic laws enforced, which did not allow women’s photographs on I cards. She
had met Janaki Thevar in Delhi, but she lived in Malayasia and had been member
of Parliamet for two terms, her late husband Athi Nahappan was even minister in
Malayasian cabinet. Author has reproduced Janaki Thevar’s diary pages relating
to INA acitvities during 1940’s, which make a fascinating reading. There were
many women comrades with Janaki, one being Gurupdesh Kaur, another Anjali Suppiah
and her sister, plus Jeeva Mudialiar. Janaki Thevar advised author to meet
Gandhi Nathan, another senior INA cadrewho lived bit away in Malayasia. Sagari
Chhabra was taken care of by a Punjabi Jasvinder Singh now. Gandhi Nathan gave
interview with a bit of difficulty, He had met Colonel Habib-ur Rehman, who was
with Netaji in air crash and still had burn marks on his skin. He confirmed
that Netaji ashes are kept in Renkoji temple in Tokyo. He gave exact time of
Netaji’s death at 8 pm. Two nurses and Habib-ur-Rehman were present at the
bedsisde of Netaji at the time of his passing away. There is reference to
Amreek Singh Gill of INA, who had passed away. Another Tamilian INA cadre Vellu
Sami, who was born on 15th August 1917 was introduced to author. P Meenakshi,
another member of Rani Jhansi brigade, born in Malaysia in 1924, was also
introduced to Sagri Chhabra, her husband had encouraged her to join INA. Gandhi
Nathan introduced many more INA old guards, all 80+ in 2004 visits of author,
many have since left the world.

In
the centre of the book, there is photo section, in which 32 RARE colour and
black and white photographs have been reproduced, some are of recent visit of
author with old freedom fighters. Photographs are from India and abroad, include
those of Subhadra Joshi, Janky Thevar, Savitri Ramkishan, Lakshmi Sehgal, Sarla
Shah, Rajkumari Gupta, Manvati Pandey, Gandhi Nathan, P Meenakshi, Beant Singh
Kukreja of Balak Sena, blind K Chinnaya, Lata Bhardwaj, U NU and Gandhi, Than
Than Nu and Bahadurshah Zafar tomb in Yangoon.

In
Singapore, author visited archives, gurdwara and met Ram Prakash, who was in
INA. She also met Rani Jhansi brigade member Dharma Kaur’s daughter Deepa, met
Bhagyalaskhmi another cadet. Sadhu Singh’s son, who had joined Baba Hari Singh
Usman’s party.

In a
return journey to Malayasia again, author gives the title of her chapter
as-Used and Discarded Freedom fighters.In this trip she meets Anjali
Punnaswamy, Ahilandam V Pillai. Estamate of INA acdres in Malayasia was 15000
to 20000.

After Malayasia, Thailand and Singapore,
author Sagari Chhabra moves to Mynamar or Burma, the last leg of her journeys
and the most difficult one also. She lived close to Aung San Suu Kyi there, but
not meeting her.She visited Bahadur Shah’s Grave, from where Netaji Subhas held
a solomn ceremony on 26th September 1943. Though author did not visit Namdhari
Guru Ram Singh’s memorial, who also died in exile at Rangoon or Mandely jail,
where Lala Lajpar Rai and Bhagat Singh’s uncle Ajit Singh were imprisoned during
1907-09. She met grand nephew of INA cadet Subramaniam. Indian freedom fighters
in Burma have suffered most, as they lived there in stateless status, neither
they were given Burmese citizenship, nor were given Indian status by Indian
government. She met Lieutenant Perumal, who was born in Rangoon in 1928. Yet
neither he nor even his grand children were given Burmese citizenship and in
India, INA committee told that freedom fighter pension can be given only to
Indian citizens. Then there was Chinnaya in interior Burma in same condition.
There was Rajan, who spent five months in prison due to his INA membership, but
without citizenship of any country, as a wreck he just wished to be recognised
as ‘a freedom fighter’! Author spoke to Indian diplomats in Burma about the
plight of these freedom fighters, but they had no concern. With difficulty
author could get permission to visit Ziawadi, where numerous INA veterans
lived, there was an INA camp. Author met Shankar Nath, 87 year old Ganesh
Chadha, she visited Netaji ki Chhavni of 1944. She took this risky journey with
his driver Bhim Singh spying on her.

Author
knew late Burmese Prime Minister U Nu’s daughter Than Than Nu before coming to
Burma, she had met her in Delhi. For carrying Lt. Perumal’s humble letter to
Indian foreign secretary visitng Burma, she was later summoned by Burmese
officials and admonished. Author met interestingly Nyi Nyi Mint, widow of dead
dictator Gen Ne Win. She met some poets too. Author refers to struggle of Aung
Suu Ki for democracy in Burma. She could come across even sex industry in Burma
Author visited Mandley also, where many Indian freedomfighters were imprisoned.
She went upto Maymyo, where Lakshmi Sehgal has set up an advance camp as
hospital. She was able to meet INA vetran D R Sharma, whose two sisters in Rani
Jhansi brigade and a brother in law who were killed in action. Author was
betrayed by some of her accomplice in journey, as as she returned to Rangoon,
she was summoned. After returning to Delhi after her adventurous trip, author
looked for monument ot INA or Netaji Subhas Bose in Delhi, she found none! And
she comments-‘so much for Dilli Chalo’ the favourite slogan of Netaji.

In
afterword to her book author has referred to pro democracy movement of Burma by
Aung Su Ki and expressed the desire for ‘true freedom’.

In Search for Freedom is an
important publication to look for Indian freedoms struggle fighters in
different countries. Netaji Subhas Bose’s Indian National Army was an
internationally spread out force, remnants of which have been accounted here to
some measure.There had been other international movements of Indian freedom
struggle, most notably Ghadar party formed in USA, it had its impact in many
more countries, than even INA had. It spread from Latin America to Europe and
Asia. If some researcher could do data collection on that also.

Author Sagari Chhabra has passion for freedom fighters, that is how, she
has been able to connect with them and interview them. All this has resulted in
getting this significant book published. Harper Collins brought it out also in
nice manner. It is a must book for anyone wishing to know about Indian freedom
struggle in depth.

As different ideological groups continue to bicker over Bhagat Singh’s legacy, noted scholar and author Chaman Lal puts the martyr’s message in perspective

To the common man Chaman Lal seems inseparable from a study of Bhagat Singh, the great revolutionary who preferred to be executed than write letters for clemency. So much so that not many realise that for long Lal was Chairman, Centre of Indian Languages, at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies and research and writing on Bhagat Singh are merely his passion. Yet no writing about Bhagat Singh is complete without the mention of Lal. Indeed away from the known facts about Bhagat Singh, Lal is a treasure trove. For instance, once he revealed that Bhagat Singh, a tall, handsome man, loved movies. He hailed from an Arya Samaji background which did little to stop him from being an atheist later in his life. As we remember the revolutionary on 23 March, the day he was executed by the British, Lal took few questions from The Hindu.

Excerpts:

After seeking to ‘appropriate’ Bhagat Singh, one sees visible hostility towards the great revolutionary by the Right Wing forces. How do you look at this change?

The Right Wing needed Bhagat Singh or an icon to win over people who hold these heroes in high esteem. However, once they are in power, they change colour when people demand honouring the ideas of Bhagat Singh and like. Moreover, as the revolutionary’s ideological position against communalism and narrow sectarian thinking gets asserted through activists, the Right Wing(ers) reveal their true colours.

In the light of the ABVP attempt to disrupt your lecture in Delhi University, do you think the youngsters who were protesting against your talk even have an idea of what Bhagat Singh stood for?

No, they were so brainwashed and filled with blind hatred that they were not ready to listen to any reason. They were invited to join and listen, then put any number of questions, comments. They were not prepared for that. When the actual letter of Bhagat Singh addressed to his father at leaving his house for the country was being read, they were shouting and heckling. Neither they knew anything about Bhagat Singh nor did they wish to know. They had no respect for the martyr.

Isn’t it ironical that the man who stood against religion is now being made a victim by zealots of Hindutva?

No, it is not ironical. In fact, it is natural. Since Bhagat Singh exposed the cruelties in the name of religion, being committed by all kinds of religious zealots, his ideas are now taken to task by Hindutva zealots as was earlier done by Khalistani zealots. Simranjit Singh Maan, IPS calls Bhagat Singh as murderer of his professional ancestor Saunders and not a martyr. So now Hindutva zealots are going bit further by trying to disrupt programmes to celebrate the revolutionary!

In recent times, there has been a concerted attempt to project Bhagat Singh in a different light. For instance, misinforming people that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru were executed on Valentine’s Day. How does one counter such disinformation campaign?

This has been a standard Goebblian philosophy adopted by his true followers in Hindutva Lies Factory. To speak a falsehood hundred times to make it look ‘true’! It has been going on in the social media since few years now. To damn Valentine day they manufactured this lie to make young people feel ‘guilty’ in celebrating love and friendship on this day when three martyrs were ‘condemned’ or announced for execution. They avoid saying ‘executed’ now, as 23rd March is too well known a day, but say the punishment was announced this day, whereas judgement was delivered on 7th October 1930.

Is it correct to say that Bhagat Singh was essentially a Marxist by his ideology?

Of course, he was, which is clear from his writings and practical conduct in life. His ‘Jail Notebook’ is full of quotations from Marxist classics. His involved study of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky etc. shows his ideological preference and development. His court statements, writings like ‘Letter to Young Political Workers’, reading Lenin minutes before leaving for gallows, his explanation of the meaning of ‘Inquilab’ in court, all clearly indicate his ideological position. In fact newspapers reports of 1929-31 identify him as ‘Red’ as earlier Marx was referred in his contemporary newspapers!

After Mahatma Gandhi’s meeting with Lord Irwin, it was hoped that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru would be saved from execution. Yet it did not turn out this way. As an authority on Bhagat Singh, could you tell us what exactly transpired in the meeting and later leading to the execution on March 23, 1931?

There was tremendous pressure on Mahatma Gandhi to make clemency for three revolutionaries a condition in Gandhi-Irwin talks. Nehru-Subhas and more were pressing for it inside Congress party, but Mahatma Gandhi while pleading for leniency to Viceroy Irwin in this matter, was not inclined to make it a condition. On the other hand, Bhagat Singh himself was insistent to get executed to awaken Indian masses from slumber! Mahatma Gandhi failed to stand on his own principle of being against capital punishment in this case, as he did not assert his opposition to three executions on his principled stand. He did suggest Irwin for leniency, nothing more.

A word on Central Jail in Lahore where Bhagat Singh was executed. How have they preserved his memory?

The execution site and jail was demolished to built Shadman residential colony and Shadman Chowk is believed to be the gallows’ site. Before demolition Pakistan's first official photographer late F E Chaudhary, who happened to be Christian photographed the site in black and white camera. Incidentally, the first official photographer of Pakistan was Christian and the first official national anthem poet was Jammu’s Hindu Jagan Nath Azad! Civil groups in Pakistan are fighting to rename Shadman Chowk as Bhagat Singh Chowk, despite being beaten up many times by Islamic Jehadists! They succeeded as well as a Government-appointed committee, inclusive of Faiz’s daughter Salima Hashmi recommended the change of name and officer Mengal notified it too! Jehadists went to court and got a stay. However, Mengal on transfer to Faislabad declared Bhagat Singh birth house in Chak no.105, Lyallpur Bange and village primary school of Bhagat Singh as student, as heritage sites and he sanctioned Rs.8 crores rupees for their renovation. Incidentally for the first time since the birth of Bhagat Singh in this house, a festival Rang De Basanti is being organised in this house to celebrate the revolutionary martyr. Perhaps his birth anniversary in September may even be celebrated with more zeal!

Finally, could you please throw some light on the ten new letters of Bhagat Singh about which you have talked about in your new book?

It is interesting that Bhagat Singh’s written documents keep emerging even after more than 80 years of his execution. Supreme Court of India held an exhibition during Bhagat Singh birth centenary in its exhibition hall ‘The Trial of Bhagat Singh’. In this exhibition, these ten letters of correspondence of Bhagat Singh with British jail officials or judges were on display. From these letters it emerged that Bhagat Singh had third hunger strike of more than two weeks in jail. Only two hunger strikes of 114+15 days were known earlier. This third unknown hunger strike made Bhagat Singh’s total period of hunger strikes in little less than two years jail to nearly five months! Perhaps more than the total period of even Mahatma Gandhi fasts!

My present Urdu book is actually a translation of my earlier Hindi book of the same title published by Publication Division in 2007, Bhagat Singh’s birth centenary year. This book includes all available writings of Bhagat Singh till now. These ten new letters published are now included in Urdu edition of book. Not only that in 2013-14, I found a lost letter of Bhagat Singh also, which was referred by Bhagat Singh himself in subsequent letter as my ‘last lost letter’, in reference to trial of Harikishan Talwar, executed after Bhagat Singh on 9th June 1931. Harikishan had shot Punjab Governor in Punjab University Lahore convocation. He was the son of Raisahib Gurdas Ram Talwar of Pakhtunva and brother of Bhagat Ram Talwar, who helped Netaji Subhas escape from Kabul. This letter has also been included in the Urdu book, thus making it most updated and complete book of Bhagat Singh’s writings.

It started with writers' protests in the form of AwardWapsi after the brutal assassination of Prof MM Kalburgi. But the large mass of more than hundred writers could never imagine that their most decent protest form against increasing intolerance in the country would lead to such verbal abuses, heaped upon them from Hindutva trolls in such an organised form at social, print and electronic media!

That was not all. More issues came up at Film and Television Institute if Indian (FTII) in Pune, at Hyderabad Central University (the tragedy of Rohith Vemula's suicide) and then a planned attack on the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University and on the institution itself by generating Hitler-style phoney issue of ultra-nationalism.

The extreme form came by blatantly falsifying known facts of history. In response to Shashi Tharoor's comparison of Bhagat Singh and Kanhaiya Kumar, Bharatiya Janata Party's spokesman crossed all limits of decency for the Martyrs by telling white lies - "Bhagat Singh went to gallows chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'"

Inqilab Zindabaad, not Bharat Mata ki Jai

Despite their personification by some of the worst ultra-nationalist films - the whole world knows by now that the three heroes - Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru - chanted only two slogans: "inqilab zindabad" (long live the revolution) and "samrajyavad ka naash ho" (down with imperialism) until the hangman pulled the noose past 7 pm on 23 March, 1931.

They also sang songs like "Sarfroshi ki Tamanna" and refused to wear the customary black cover on their faces.

And now, in March 2016, phoney nationalists, whose party and ancestors played no role in India's freedom struggle or in making "the nation" are trying to overturn history in pure Goebblian style of Hitler's regime in 1933's Germany. Perhaps they are doing it to repeat the massacre of Communists - in this case also the followers of Bhagat Singh - in India, as it has been done in Germany, Indonesia and Chile.

Bhagat Singh belonged the most to India's working people - workers, peasants, Dalits and oppressed

Already, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has shown its fangs on 18 March by trying to disturb and disrupt a talk on Bhagat Singh's life and writings organised by a students' group at the gate of Delhi University.

Our Bhagat, their Bhagat

What was Bhagat Singh and to whom does he belong to? When everyone is trying to appropriate the supreme hero for their narrow political motives, due to the Indian people's emotional bonding with him, it becomes not only necessary but urgent to know him objectively.

Bhagat Singh was born into a truly liberal and nationalist family at Chak No. 105, Lyallpur Bange, now in Pakistan. The family was quite affluent but self-sacrificing.

The house where he was born has been declared a 'heritage property' by the Government of Pakistan. Incidentally this year, for the first time, a mela has been organised by the followers of Bhagat Singh in Pakistan.

Bhagat Singh was called 'Bhagan Walla' - The Lucky One - by his grandmother at the time of his birth as his father and uncles were released from jail around the same time. Then that became Bhagat Singh.

This time, when he is celebrated at his birthplace on his martyrdom day, it is like being reborn into the same house after 109 years, but this rebirth is in the form of ideas.

Bhagat Singh was best understood and presented by Periyar EV Ramasamy

The people of Lyallpur, now Faisalabad, considers him a 'son of the soil'. In 2007, during Bhagat Singh's birth centenary, Zahida Hina, a celebrated writer in Urdu in Pakistan, said: "Bhagat Singh was the first martyr of Pakistan in the freedom struggle."

Would Pakistan adopt and accept a martyr chanting 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'? They accept him as their own because of his credentials as a socialist revolutionary - which he actually was!

An atheist and a 'red'

The French translation of his seminal essay, 'Why I am an Atheist' is being released this month in France by a leftist organisation. The Daily Worker, a New York-based communist journal carried two reports on 25 March and 27 March, 1931 on the hanging of he three martyrs.

All newspaper reports during their trial in 1929-31 referred to them as 'reds' or socialist revolutionaries due to the content of their statements in British courts or their conduct in courts: They came to the courts with red scarfs on 24 January, 1930 to mark Lenin Day and asked the Magistrate to send their greetings to the Soviet Union, expressing solidarity with the international working class movement.

They had close relations with communists in the Meerut Conspiracy case, who were undergoing trial simultaneously. Prisoners in the Meerut case sent them wires in solidarity with their hunger strikes.

At one point Bhagat Singh, Chandershekhar Azad and their colleagues did chant 'Vande Matram' and 'Mahatma Gandhi ki Jai'. But after they attached the word 'socialist' to their organisation in September 1928, they focused on only two slogans - be it in courts, at the Delhi Central Assembly while throwing two harmless bombs on 8 April, 1929 or at the gallows - "inqilab zindabad" and "samrajyavad ka naash ho". They discarded all other slogans.

Finally, Bhagat Singh and his comrades shouted only 'inqilab zindabad' and 'samrajyavad ka naash ho', discarding all other slogans

Bhagat Singh's uncle Ajit Singh fought for the rights of indebted peasants in 1907. They were in debt then as they are now. He was in exile, working for even Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's radio in exile and died in the wee hours of 15 August, 1947 after listening to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's 'Tryst with Destiny' speech.

Another uncle Swarn Singh died of tuberculosis contracted in jail at the age of 23. Bhagat Singh's father Kishan Singh suffered jail many times as a dedicated Congress worker. His grandfather followed two conflicting religious faiths simultaneously - the Sikh faith as well as the Arya Samaj faith.

A legacy that can't be falsified

There are 111 writings from his pen, including letters, telegrams, court statements, essays and political writings. These are now freely available in Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Urdu in complete and partially in Bengali, English, Telugu, Tamil and many more languages.

The Government of India's Publication Division published his most updated documents in Hindi and Urdu. (Shaheed Bhagat Singh: Dastavezon ke Aaine Men,Urdu, published in 2014). Bhagat Singh was best understood and presented by Periyar EV Ramasamy, who got his book Why I am an Atheist translated and published in Tamil as early as in 1934.

BR Ambedkar and Periyar both wrote editorials in their papers. Nehru kept publishing Bhagat Singh's statements in Congress journal even at the risk of earning Mahatma Gandhi's wrath. Bose held a huge rally against the execution on 20 March, 1931 in Delhi despite Lord Irwin trying to stop it through Gandhi.

These facts are well documented and available at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. Bhagat Singh moved from being an Arya Samajist rationalist to an atheist by 1926 and from a Gandhian nationalist to a revolutionary nationalist in 1923 and from a revolutionary nationalist to a socialist revolutionary nationalist in 1928 with the hope of a future World Federation.

So, who did he belong to

His 2 February, 1931 'Letter to Young political Workers' is a clear document of path for Indian freedom, based on socialist principles.

No one who studies historic documents can distort Bhagat Singh's personality and his ideological perceptions, which were and are of a 'socialist revolutionary nationalist', of Marxist philosophy. All other interpretations of him are deliberate distortion.

Would Pakistan adopt and accept a martyr like Bhagat Singh had he chanted 'Bharat Mata ki Jai'?

That is what he was and he belonged the most to the working people of India - workers, peasants, Dalits, other oppressed sections, and least of all to blood-sucking capitalists/corporates and their political patrons.

The author, a retired professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, edited Bhagat Singh's writings and written extensively on those in Hindi, Punjabi and English.

At a time of upsurge in religious symbolism in the country, is Bhagat Singh’s stand on atheism relevant? It would seem so, if one goes by the interest shown in his essay: “Why I am an atheist”.

He wrote the essay in 1930 in Lahore Central Jail as a reply to a religious man who accused Bhagat Singh of becoming an atheist because of his vanity.

The essay was first published in 1934 and is said to be a tremendous read among the young generation.

“A large number of college students buy this book, not just because it is cheap and costs just Rs.35 but also because students show a lot of interest in Bhagat Singh,” said a sales executive of Jain Book Depot who did not want to be name.

“It is not vanity that has actuated me to adopt the doctrines of atheism. I am neither a rival nor an incarnation, nor the Supreme Being Himself... By the end of 1926 I had been convinced as to the baselessness of the theory of existence of an almighty supreme being who created, guided and controlled the universe,” said Bhagat Singh in his essay.

According to Chaman Lal, a retired professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, who has written 11 books on the martyr, “there is tremendous interest among youngsters, scholars as well as seniors in Bhagat Singh,”

He said that because of the current debate on nationalism, the interest in Bhagat Singh and his ideology had been increasing across the nation.

Martyr’s Day, he said, is celebrated in the memory of all the revolutionaries who sacrificed their lives during the freedom struggle but “people are greatly affected by Bhagat Singh’s personality.”

The professor described many situations where a large number of people have carried out torchlight marches in honour of Bhagat Singh, who was hanged in Lahore jail on March 23, 1931 for his role in the assassination of John Saunders, a British police officer.

Bhagat Singh and his associates held Saunders responsible for the death of Lala Lajpat Rai, a leading luminary of the freedom movement.

“On Bhagat Singh’s 100th birth anniversary in 2007, more than 10,000 people marched on the roads of Thanjavur town in Tamil Nadu to pay tribute to the martyr,” Mr Chaman Lal said.

“On Tuesday, more than a hundred students of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University took out a torchlight march in the honour of Bhagat Singh in Aurangabad,” he added.

Mr Lal, who has delivered more than hundred lectures on Bhagat Singh, not just in India but also in Canada, Mauritius and the US, among other nations said people abroad were highly influenced by Bhagat Singh’s qualities as a political thinker.

“Indians celebrate him more because of his contribution to the freedom movement,” he said.

According to Cheshtha Rajora, a Marxist thinker who’s pursuing her masters in English literature from Delhi University, the right-wing ideologues who had appropriated Bhagat Singh would be shocked to know “whom they are dealing with.”

Bhagat Singh, she said, had read all of Marx, Rosa Luxembourgh and Thomas Carlyle on the French revolution, as also other great tomes, by the time he was 22.

When I read “Why I am an atheist”, I was surprised to find such a lucid explanation and potential in a young man of my age,” said Rajora.